Nicholas II was not the
luckiest person in the world; nor did he ever seem to be blessed
with enormous reserves of common sense. One of my professors at
the University of Virginia always said that Nicholas reminded him
of the cartoon character who always had a black cloud
hovering over his head.

2. Bad wedding
timing
(A marriage during the official mourning period for
his dad, Alexander III.)
"As for the Tsar [Alexander III] himself, his condition began to
worsen and at his doctor's recommendation, he was moved to the
Crimea with Maria and Nicholas. He appeared to improve but then
his health deteriorated rapidly and Nicholas sent for Alix [Alexandra], who
came quickly and they were formally betrothed. [Nicholas had
proposed to her earlier that year, but Alexander III had refused
to approve.] Tsar Alexander III died suddenly, leaving an unsure
Nicholas to reign over Russia (Mazour 123). The morning after
Alexander's death, Princess Alix converted to Orthodoxy and took
the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Fedorovna. (Massie 44) The
wedding was moved forward at Nicholas' request and one week after
the funeral of Alexander, Nicholas and Alexandra were married in
the chapel of the Winter Palace. (Lincoln 26) Because everyone
was still in mourning, there was no honeymoon or reception after
the wedding." (it.stlawu.edu/%7Erkreuzer/pstahl/nalove2.htm)

Because the wedding took
place so close to the funeral, Alexandra was called the "funeral
bride."

3. Coronation ceremony
bad omens

On 26 May 1896, Nicholas
and Alexandra were crowned in the Cathedral of the Assumption in
Moscow. During the ceremony, which lasted five hours, Nicholas
was invested with the orb, the scepter and the chain of the Order
of St. Andrew.

"After being proclaimed Emperor and Autocrat of
all the Russias, Nicholas II entered the sanctuary, for the only
time in his life, to celebrate the mass as a priest of the
Orthodox Church. As he walked up the stairs, the chain of the
Order of St. Andrew slipped from his shoulders and fell to the
floor, a fact which was taken as a bad omen by those who saw it."
(Source: www.geocities.com/jesusib/Nicholas.html)

3. Khodynka Field
Stampede
"Four days later, as it was the costume (sic) at the Tsar's
coronation, a banquet was going to be held for the people at
Khodynka Meadow, a field outside Moscow. There would be free
beer and gifts for everyone. [The rumor was that rich gifts were
to be distributed; in actuality the gift was to consist of a
"roll, a piece of sausage, gingerbread and a mug" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khodynka)] A
night before, people began to crowd at Khodynka; at dawn a half
million people had gathered there, where they could see the beer
and the gifts, awaiting for them. Only sixteen men had been
assigned to keep order among the crowd. Suddenly a rumor spread
among the people that there were not enough beer and presents for
everybody. The crowd began to push themselves, falling down and
crushing between them. It all happened in 15 minutes; there were
1429 dead and thousand of wounded. When they learned about the
tragedy, Nicholas and Alexandra were shocked; they spent the rest
of the day visiting hospitals and comforting the wounded. That
night a ball given by the French embassy, was going to be held.
The Minister of Finance, Sergei Witte, suggested that the ball
should be canceled in spite of the tragedy, but Nicholas' uncles,
Grand Dukes Vladimir, Alexis, Serge and Paul advised their nephew
that he and Alexandra must attend the ball for diplomatic
reasons, and so they did." (Source: www.geocities.com/jesusib/Nicholas.html) [actual
casualties were closer to 1300 dead and an equal number
wounded.]

"The first occasion was
during the celebrations attending his coronation at Moscow on May
18, 1896. A public fête had been arranged in Khodinsky
meadow, near Petrovsky park. But the police arrangements were so
bad that the crowd began to heave violently. Suddenly there
seemed to be a panic and a general stampede ensued; there were
four thousand victims, of which two thousand died. When Nicholas
II heard of the catastrophe he did not display the slightest sign
of emotion and did not even cancel a ball for that
evening.

Nine years later, on May 14,
1905, Admiral Rojdestvensky's fleet was utterly destroyed; with
it disappeared Russia's whole future in the Far East. The Emperor
was just about to play a game of tennis when the telegram
announcing the disaster was handed to him. He simply said: "What
a horrible catastrophe!" and without another word, asked for his
racket.

"If only his diary would
always contain such joyous entries . . . but on the evening of
May 18, a horrifying diary entry would pierce the pages: 'Till
this day, thank God, everything has been going quite smoothly,
but today a grave sin has befallen. The crowd who spent the
night in the Khodynskoye Pole (meadow) pending the giving out of
a dinner and a mug, pressed upon the wooden constructions, and
there was a terrible jam, and it's dreadful to add, about 1300
people were trampled down!"
(www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/royalty/russia/coronation.html)

4. Who was
who?

The tsar, the king of
England and the German kaiser were all good friends; they all
looked quite alike; and might have been
quite interchangeable

There were enormous pressures put on Alexandra to
give birth to a son, especially after she gave birth to girl after girl after girl after
girl. (See Robert Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra.)

Once Aleksei was born,
"weeks after Alexis' birth, he began to bleed from the navel; it lasted two
days and although the doctor applied all kinds of bendages (sic) and
cures, the bleeding didn't stop. When the Tsarevitch began to
walk and he tumbled, big swellings were formed under his skin and
he cried out in terrible pain. Alexandra was shocked; it was
evident that Alexis had haemophilia, the terrible blood disease
transmitted by her family." (Source: www.geocities.com/jesusib/NicholasII.html)

This of course opened the door for Rasputin.

"Relating indirectly to Alexei's illness came a
person who had great influence over the Tsar and Tsarina. Twice
when Alexei was suffering a great deal as a result of his
hemophilia and appeared to be on his deathbed, a man named
Gregory Rasputin intervened to "save" him. Rasputin was an
illiterate Siberian peasant supposed to have strange religious
powers. Though it was never clear if it was indeed his prayers
that saved Alexei and later the Empress's good friend Anna,
Alexandra believed fully in his powers and adopted him as her
friend, confidant and advisor. (Mazour 134, Massie
334)" (it.stlawu.edu/%7Erkreuzer/pstahl/nalove2.htm)

Unfortunately, the decision was made to keep Aleksei's illness secret; this
led to all kinds of ugly rumors being circulated; it also did not generate any public sympathy or support.

This is one of the classic photos of the tsar with his
family.

6. Not a good way to die

For details about their slaughter--no other real way to describe
it--in 1918 at the hands of the Bolsheviks, see